Quilts at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum

I am spoiled. 

Every year my sister and I plan adventure’s for the other’s birthday.  Another birthday rolled around this past Monday.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, I’m now the definition of “middle age”.  (< Thank you to Steve for letting me know this).  Not too bad…. I spent all last year saying I’m 45 already and it was a fabulous year so it’s OK to re-live it, right?

Early Monday morning my sister, Lorna, picked me up and headed off.  Destination unknown.  We are great in car trips – we can gab away the hours and love watching the world go by the car windows.  140 miles later we pulled into Kalamazoo.

I’ve got a gal… in Kalamazoo!

We spent the morning in the Kalamazoo Valley Museum: The Kalamazoo Valley Museum is a "hands-on" museum in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The museum is largely aimed at families, and focuses on science, technology, and history.

Although small, it had an impressive assortment of displays and programs (including the Challenger Learning Program and Evidence Found: Explorations in Archaeology).  They utilized their space phenomenally and the museum had a great flow about it.  

Truly hands-on – we had to try everything!  I regret I don’t have pictures from the hands-on weather exhibit – we were too busy playing!  But I did take pictures of us live in the newsroom!

One of the main features of the museum included the history of Kalamazoo.  It included Checker Cabs, Gibson guitars, and medical breakthroughs.   

And even though the museum had limited space, they did incorporate some very pretty scrap quilts in their Kalamazoo in the Union (Civil War) collection.  My favorite is the log cabin mourning quilt with the embroidered binding.  It really made me itch to pick-up embroidery needle.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Olde Penninsula Brewpub and Restaurant and off into the sunset for geocaching.  

Another amazing day in the record books!

Elisa and Lorna at "Big Red"
Holland State Park